Hawks’ softball team searching for their identity

After a quick 3-0 start the Hawks’ softball team have stumbled a little winning just two of their last seven including a current two game losing streak.

Last season’s Woodward-Granger’s team didn’t start out much different, winning seven of their first 10 games before racking up winning streaks of four and seven games.

They finished the 2015-2016 season with an overall 20-13 record and second in the West Central Activities Conference (WCAC) with a 13-3 record.

So there is still hope that this team will find their swing and put together a couple of winning streaks that puts in back on track.

“We are looking to compete game in and game out,” Noah Bean, Hawks’ head coach said. “We expect to be in the mix for a conference championship. Two of the last three conference champs went on to win state.”

Bean is calling on his veteran players to do the heavy lifting and mentor their younger teammates on and off the field.

“We are going to rely heavily on our five returning seniors to carry the load for us,” Bean said. “Be that offensively or defensively and pitching.”

In 10 games the five seniors have a combined batting average of .292 (Lesch at .500), with 13 RBIs, 44 hits, and 13 runs.

Offensively as a team, the Hawks are batting .306, with 45 runs, 83 hits, 1 home run, 39 RBIs, 19 walks and just 21 strikeouts.

“I have been impressed with the way the younger kids to the everyday starting line have stepped up for us,” Bean said. “They are making sure to get quality at bats in both on practice and in games.”

Pitching has seen its struggles. In nine starts Jamison posts a 5-4 record with a 2.52 era, 19 walks, and 45 strikeouts in 61 innings. Hitters are currently batting at a .251 clip.

With only a third of the season in the books there is still plenty of softball left, but the Hawks will have to undo this past week’s game results.

On June 1, the host Hawks were barely edged out 1-0 by fellow Hawks of South Hamilton. A day later they fell 10-4 to the Lady Jays of Bondurant-Farrar.

Two days later, at their own varsity tournament , W-G finally snapped their losing ways after beating out the Iowa Falls-Alden Cadets 2-0. Later that afternoon the Saint Ansgar Saints dealt the Hawks a 5-1 loss.

This past Monday the Hawks dropped their second in a row after the host Earlham Cardinals doubled up the Hawks in a 8-4 game.

Currently the Hawks are fourth in the WCAC, two and a half games back of the first place Cardinals.